APOLLO 13, A MOVIE FOR PEOPLE OF FAITH

Published in appreciation for the opportunities
created by the team who created the movie Apollo 13

Reflections since the July 1995 release of Apollo 13

by Jerry Woodfill

Warning System Engineer

Apollo 13 Mission Operations Team

I should have written this essay five years ago when a Christian
friend suggested it. It's about the movie APOLLO 13 and how
beneficial it has been in witnessing for Christ. You may not
know it, but I have been telling the story Ron Howard and Tom
Hanks made into a movie since 1972. My venues have been modest
in comparison, small churches, prayer groups, Christian fellowships,
an occasional Gospel convention, Christian radio, or television station.
Audiences have been as few as a single person and as many as a 1,000 in a
sanctuary, but the testimony of how prayer was answered in the rescue
has always lifted the faith of those who heard. (And most certainly that
of Jerry Woodfill each time he spoke of it.)

But why do I choose, 7 years after APOLLO 13 first appeared in July
of 1995, to finally give credit where it is due? Call it circumstance
or Providence, but it is a result of an e-mail I received at my desk
at NASA in Houston which led to this essay. Like many in Scripture,
I believe in "signs" from "above" in the sense that they may be
urgings from God to speak up and act. That e-mail message came
on Friday, June 14th, 2002, the 37th anniversary of my career at
the Johnson Space Center. It was from a faith-based media company
called GRACE HILL MEDIA. Their mission was to encourage the
Christian community to attend films with
Christian content. Though APOLLO 13 was seven years old, a
re-release as an IMAX movie was planned for the Fall of 2002.

The 37th anniversary e-mail and my failure to share thanks
for the film compelled me to be involved in the project.
God was giving me a second chance to speak my praise. More
importantly, He was making a new and greater way of sharing
all those miracles He wrought bringing Jim Lovell, Fred Haise,
and Jack Swigert safely back to Earth in April of 1970.
The GRACE HILL representative shared a few ideas about how
I might serve. One concept was a series of radio interviews
with Christian stations throughout the United States. While
this was the kind of outreach I've enjoyed over the past three
decades, I wanted to especially explain how the movie benefits
God's kingdom.

First, let me speak to my experience. I'd been President of a
local men's Christian fellowship nearly 15 years. As such,
I'd spent thousands of dollars advertising our meetings,
buying meals, and providing for speakers' expenses.
Besides the cost, there were as many hours expended in phone
calls inviting men to attend our four meetings each month. In 1994,
I counted 8 men who had come to Christ as a result. A few weeks after
the release of APOLLO 13 in Houston, I got a call from a similar men's
fellowship near the Houston Galleria to share that same Apollo 13
testimony I'd given about 500 times. Arriving at the meeting,
their chairman was amazed, "We've been having about 50 men, and
125 are here today because of the movie." I gave the same
"well-reheased" testimonies spoken since 1972 and made a closing
appeal for those who had never accepted Christ as their Lord and
Savior to do so. Over 30 hands shot-up wanting to become Christian
believers. There were lawyers, business men, and other professions
among the hands. These men prayed the prayer of salvation with me.
THERE IS NO QUESTION THAT GOD USED THE MOVIE APOLLO 13 TO ACCOMPLISH THIS.

I've always enjoyed unique venues for my testimony because of
the interest in space exploration, but never to the extent that
I've seen since APOLLO 13 was released. In the concluding five
months of 1995, I spoke 30 times and counted 300 men, women,
boys and girls accepting Christ as Lord and Savior in those meetings.
And the invitations, like Captain Kirk's Enterprise, have taken me to
share Christ among groups where "no man has gone before" to witness
the power of prayer and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. There have been
numerous AARP clubs, along with Rotary and other service clubs, the
Institute of Electronic and Electrical Engineers, key note appearances
before a national Dupont Conference and the Society of Financial Crimes
Investigators (I didn't know there was such a group), along with a
considerable increase in Gospel based groups of all persuasions and
denominations.

All these opportunities came because of Ron Howard, Tom Hanks,
and all those who so wonderfully crafted the movie APOLLO 13.
I'm especially proud of Mike Bostick, son of my old friend
Jerry Bostick. Jerry and I were Sunday school superintendents
at the local Methodist Church, I at 9:30 A.M., Jerry at 11:00 A.M.
While Jerry played a far more crucial role in the rescue of Apollo
13 than I did, his finest work was being Mike's father. Mike worked
for Ron Howard and suggested Ron acquire the rights to Commander
Jim Lovell's book about Apollo 13. Mike was among those who
contributed so wonderfully to the movie APOLLO 13. Thanks
Mike I'll never forget you for that.

But enough of how APOLLO 13 has helped my ministry. I've often
wondered why God so powerfully has used the film to encourage
folks to address issues of faith. The movie doesn't preach a
message, i.e., there is no "plan of salvation" presented.
Unlike my APOLLO 13 testimonies, the movie does not demonstrate
specific prayers and their answers, though there is a well
recognized portion of the movie documenting the outpouring of
intercessions across the land. Here's what I think is a
biblical reason: Have you ever read the Book of Esther
in the Old Testament? You won't find any mention of God.
Yet, the alignment of circumstances is so obviously
God-ordained that the book is one of the greatest witnesses
of God's hand in the life of believers. The Book of Esther
certainly shows the importance of prayer in the outcome just
as APOLLO 13 records its presence that April week. A plot is
at work to kill every Hebrew on the planet. Because of
Esther's uncle's prayers, the King can't sleep. He reads
a diary of court events and discovers that he has not
rewarded Esther's Uncle for saving his life. As a result,
the Hebrews are spared. Why couldn't the King sleep? Why
did he choose to read a dull record book? The unspoken
answer has to be prayer, the favor of the One who watches
over the lives of each of us.

Likewise, we have three Apollo astronauts, likely to be the
first to perish in space. Carbon dioxide gas from their own
lungs will kill them. A plentiful supply of square filters
will not fit into the round barrel of the rescue ship.
Miraculously, DUCT TAPE SAVES THEM. Why was duct tape
stowed on board? Why did someone conceive of using it?
Why? Why? Why? Again, like Esther and her people,
Jim Lovell and his crew benefited from favor from that
same One who acted in millenniums past. As Scripture
says, "He is the same yesterday, today, and forever."
Howard, Hanks, and Universal were His voice of testimony
creating the movie APOLLO 13.

Finally, apart from the obvious impact on outreach for
Christ and His Kingdom, APOLLO 13 offers hope to all
those facing insurmountable trials. Universal's movie
speaks a voice of encouragement through the "big screen"
which is to be, thanks to IMAX and Universal Studios,
a REALLY-REALLY BIG IMAX screen. Here it is: All
know that the quote "Houston, we have a problem" has become
a way of phrasing every conceivable hardship, flaw, or
difficulty faced in everyday life. But thanks to APOLLO
13, it has been replaced by a more wonderful saying,
FAILURE IS NOT AN OPTION. I can still hear Gene Kranz's
words as an inner voice. Through my headset that April
13th, 1970 Monday night, Gene was like the voice of the Lord.
As a Christian, I know when God is speaking to me through
another person. At the time, I was not a believer, but I
definitely knew that the confident demeanor and fearless
timbre of Gene Kranz's voice was coming from above. I
never heard him say, while I had my head set on,
"Failure is not an option," but what he did say,
and how he said it, and acted it, and
believed it, spoke so loudly in my spirit that I didn't
need to hear him say those exact words. He wholly
embodied them in a way that affected all of us.
[Click
here for the story of the origin of the quote:
"Failure is not an option."]

Some have been bothered by the curse words in the movie.
So Parents, I suggest you view a video of the movie and
decide if it's appropriate for your children in the
IMAX version, but let me say that you won't read any
off color language in the air-to-ground transcripts,
or hear them in the over-the-air communications.
This is not to say that many of us didn't use such
words from time to time. I know I did. Consider them
simply as creative license in the interest of realism.
I'm told there are 50 such instances, yet the movie did
receive a PG rating rather than PG-13. We know that the
Lord let us know about David's flaws as well as graphic
descriptions in the Song of Solomon which could be considered
inappropriate, for children, if depicted in movies.
Think about it.

But I do know, as a result of the rescue of Apollo
13, I found Christ as my Lord and Savior and such
words are no longer in my vocabulary. And I do know
that the same Spirit which moves me to tears every
time I speak of the rescue of Apollo 13, speaks in
the same way to Gene Kranz, a Catholic layman, a
believer in God. It's no secret that Gene cries openly,
on camera no less, when he speaks of what was accomplished.
He, like I, senses, we had help from above. Those of us
who have an inner witness of His presence in our hearts
sometimes behave this way. We can't help it. So, please
cut those characters in the movie a little slack, even
when they blurt out an inappropriate word or two.

Besides those language "flaws", some have found a
few errors in representing the NASA technology of the
1960s. Comparing APOLLO 13 to all the other movies I
have viewed about Apollo technology, I find that Howard,
Hanks, and Universal Studios achieved unbelievable
realism and fidelity. Consider that the vehicles were
built and flown a quarter century in the past. In fact,
they erred so little that there is sort of a cult of
investigators trying to find the smallest of flaws in
the movie's portrayal of those 60s moon ships. And before
we criticize the special effects, I want all to know about
a meeting I had last night. Speaking to a group of teachers
about the movie APOLLO 13, I was surprised to hear one say,
"If it weren't for the movie APOLLO 13, my 6th grade
students wouldn't know how America got to the Moon.
The movie got their interest and attention." My point
is that I'm grateful for the realism of the movie in
educating youth on a by-gone era of space exploration.

Because my responsibility was the Apollo warning system,
I was amazed at how accurately my system was depicted in
the movie, even down to the actual lights that illuminated
on the panel of warning lights at the time of the explosion.
However, I was slightly dismayed when I stop-framed through
the sequence at the time of the explosion to see the "C/W"
light on. C/W stood for Caution and Warning Detection Unit,
my direct responsibility. Having the light on did not mean
that an alarm had occurred rather: it meant my system had
failed. Indeed, it hadn't failed. It worked wonderfully
well as the first indication of the O2 tank explosion
that might have killed the crew. But I forgive you Mr.
Howard, and Mr. Hanks, and company. You have done a
wonderful job of achieving the technical fidelity of
Apollo.

But back to that quote, "Failure is not an option."
Part of the purpose of this essay, besides giving
my thanks for APOLLO 13's ministry benefits, was to
understand how the movie APOLLO 13 has encouraged
others. To this end, I did an INTERNET search using
the GOOGLE search engine. I entered the words Apollo
13 and prayer in the search field, with quotes around
the words Apollo 13. GOOGLE found over 1500 pages
using this criteria. Studying the first several
hundred revealed far too many to cite in this essay,
but there were two which moved me to tears.
In closing, I'd like to paraphrase and partially
quote their content:

A mother and father's son fell from a tree breaking
his spine. The day he broke his spine, doctors said
he'd probably be paralyzed for life. His parents said,
"no way." His mother recalled, "One of my comments at
that point was from Apollo 13, which was, 'Failure is
not an option.'" Well, with the same resolve exhibited
by the movie APOLLO 13, the father searched the Internet
and found an experimental drug that offered some promise
if given within 72 hours of the injury. Like the movie
Apollo 13, this was accomplished, but in 76 hours. However,
though it seemed like an answer to their prayers, there was
no assurance it would work in their son's case. But it
did! And 10 weeks later, he walked out of the hospital.
Though doctors could not be sure it was a result of the
drug, they admitted it was, as many view the rescue of
Apollo 13, something of a miracle.

The second incident deals with the account of a daughter
whose father is dying with cancer. She writes in hopes of
encouraging others who must care for loved ones on the
brink of eternity.

"Well... Apollo 13 has become my role model, my support,
my comfort, and my favorite movie at 3 AM when I can't
sleep because I'm so overwhelmed with my own life. I've
already written a review of Apollo 13 the movie. You can
go look it up. I said it was great. I said you should
watch it. But this isn't just a review of the movie.
This is about how I have emotionally connected with the
movie. This is about how I use the movie as a crutch
to get me through the day. This is about how Apollo
13 keeps me sane in an insane time!"

"They say that Apollo 13 was a Successful Failure
because of all they learned from the experience.
I'm hoping that my experience with cancer will also
be a Successful Failure. The doctor has already told us
that my dad won't be cured and any treatments we do won't
change that. So I already know that I'm going to be a
failure... Nothing I do can save my father's life. But
maybe I can learn and grow. Just maybe my dad and I can
have some more good times together. Maybe we can have some
fun and overcome some challenges on this journey. Then
I'd say it would be a successful failure for sure.
Sometimes I'm surprised at how my life seems to parallel
the hardships the astronauts had to endure. I find myself
doing things for my dad that I never imaged I would have
to do."

"The one line in Apollo 13 that echoes in my mind is
Gene Kranz saying, "Failure is not an option!" I know
that he meant they had to bring the astronauts back
alive. I also know that my dad is dying and I can't
do anything to change that -- except pray for a miracle.
I am praying for a miracle, but I also know that I have
to be prepared for my dad's death. However, I still insist
that FAILURE IS NOT AN OPTION! So, if death is
inevitable -- what do I mean? Well, I mean that
whatever happens, I have to make sure I don't
give up. I don't lose sight of the wonderful times
we can still have. I don't lose my humor or my love
for life... I have to make sure that I do my best to
make every day with my dad as wonderful as possible,
that the end of his life is as good as it can be, and
we learn something new every day we are together. I
also need to remember that no matter how bad things
get, I love my daddy and he loves me. If I just
remember that... I can't fail."

I submit to you that only a movie inspired by the One
who overcame death, the Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ,
could give the kind of comfort described so wonderfully
and beautifully above. May all who have not seen the
movie APOLLO 13 experience it in the IMAX format.
More importantly, may all who HAVE seen APOLLO 13 see
it again. Let us use APOLLO 13 as God's tool to bring
many more into His kingdom through faith in the Lord
Jesus Christ.

Jerry Woodfill
July 17, 2002

For 46 years, Jerry Woodfill has been employed by
NASA in Houston. He holds BAEE and BSEE degrees
from Rice University. At the onset of the lunar
landing program, he managed the spacecraft warning
systems so that he was monitoring spacecraft Eagle's
descent when Neil Armstrong landed on the Moon.
Likewise, on April 13, 1970, Jerry was monitoring
Apollo 13's warning system when the vehicle exploded.
His system was first to alert mission control to the
life-threatening malfunction depicted in the
Tom Hanks-Ron Howard movie APOLLO 13. For his
participation in the rescue of Apollo 13, he shared
the Presidential Medal of Freedom as a member of the
Apollo 13 Mission Operations Team.

For a free presentation of this message
to your church or group, contact Jerry Woodfill
at woodfill@spaceacts.com .